So did you have any success with marking the gates of your carabiners? Did it last?
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manofthesonAug 28 '14 at 15:56

I tested nail polish on a carabiner I use for my car keys and yeah, everything gets rubbed off pretty fast. Useless to bother. I have marked non-gate parts of my carabiners with nailpolish and electrical tape just to ID them as mine, and that worked fine (I prefer colored electrical tape).
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theJollySinAug 28 '14 at 16:03

3 Answers
3

The method by which carabiners in any color are coated (either gate or body) is anodizing, which is going to be nearly impossible to sufficiently replicate with anything practical and cost-effective at home. With anodizing, the coating essentially becomes part of the aluminum itself. So anything you put on the gate will wear off relatively quickly and potentially cause the screw-gate to jam up. Nothing you paint on a carabiner or its gate will be permanent. Even the anodizing eventually wears off, unless of course you never use them.

Don't use the "metal markers", aka paint pens. The coat of paint they apply would definitely be too thick for a carabiner gate, and while quite tough, it's also less durable than fingernail polish.

That said, fingernail polish, as others have mentioned, is worth a shot. Carefully put a very light, thin coat on only the gate itself and not any crevices or threads. Before you apply it, make sure you clean everything well so the polish adheres with a green Scotch-brite pad, or similar pad (not the non-scratch kind). Aluminum oxidizes over time and will prevent the fingernail polish from sticking, so if you don't clean it, the polish will flake/rub off rather quickly for sure.

Whatever you do, do a test on just one carabiner first to make sure that the marking has adhered and also that the gate still functions as intended.

For what it's worth, I've never known anyone that has painted/marked the gates of carabiners. Spines are usually where any markings or taping end up. So any community standard that exists would be for identification purposes, either to determine ownership or if a piece has been retired to non-critical purposes (doesn't need to keep you alive).

Here is an example of even hard anodizing wearing off. You can't see it so much in this photo, but the under/inner side is even more worn than the outside.

"Aluminum oxidizes over time". Actually, it oxidizes essentially instantly. Aluminium is an extremely reactive metal and oxidizes as soon as the surface is scratched. You have never touched aluminium: any time you touch an object made from aluminium, you're actually touching the oxide layer on the surface. You've seen the thermite reaction, right? That's how keen aluminium is to oxidize.
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David RicherbyAug 26 '14 at 16:37

Nail polish is super common to mark who's gear is who's, but in this case, the question was about replicating the red paint in the pictured carabiner. This is not all that common, I got confused originally too.
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DavidRFeb 7 '13 at 1:14

Yes, and nail polish will work for that.
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whatsisnameFeb 7 '13 at 4:49

Unfortunately nail polish would probably gunk up the locking mechanism. I wouldn't put nail polish on any moving piece of a carabiner.

You can use nail polish to mark your gear so you know that it's yours (and not your partner's). You may be able to find a multi-color scheme that indicates the carabiner's date, but generally that's not an issue (if it looks worn out, replace it). Carabiners last a long time.

That is an interesting point. You didn't exactly answer my question though. Is there something that would work?
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theJollySinFeb 7 '13 at 2:46

1

I would not worry about nail polish disturbing the mechanism if used as pictured, especially on a screw-gate. A nail polish layer will be very thin as long as you don't gob it on all over the place, and snapping the carabiner shut a few times will take care of any bumps in the polish.
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whatsisnameFeb 7 '13 at 4:51

Nail polish tends to chip off rather than gum up. That's why it's used so often for mechanical marking.
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PräriewolfFeb 7 '13 at 15:39

It might be nice to link this answer to the nail polish answer with a comment.
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DudeOnRockFeb 7 '13 at 17:06